Shadows and Fog
by Nalana
Summary: Who know nightmares held keys? What started as a search to free Jack has turned into something much larger. After Lost City Pt. 2. [Final Chapter up]
1. Nightmares Reveal

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate, I have no connection to the show, and I'm doing this for fun. Please don't sue.   
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: Please forgive part of this formating. Gah. THis is also my first Stargate fic, so please be kind. Suggestions, Ideas, What you'd like to see, etc are welcomed!   
  
  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~ ~^*.*^~ ~*~*~*~*~   
  
  
  
She was suspended in ebony. The space wasn't empty as an abyss was. It seemed to be constructed out of some kind of silk-like material. One set was sticky, other smooth. It was like a spider's intricate web. If she stepped in the wrong place, she'd plummet through the cracks into warm liquid that churned below her.   
  
  
  
She dragged in a deep breath. Carefully placing one foot in front of the other, she made her way to the far side of the web. Despite the steam from the liquid below, she was frozen to the bone. Major Samantha Carter had no idea where she was stepping, only praying that she wouldn't take a wrong step.   
  
A small glow illuminated the center of the tunnel. The light was tinted blue, many shades, twisting turning, until they came together to form a new shape. A somewhat circular upright structure formed, resembling a vertical coffin assembled in front of her eyes.   
  
She found the breath she had taken in leaving her lungs, leaving them barren. The spaces in the web-floor seemed to dissolve in her mind. She didn't care, she had to get to the structure. Closer. Closer. She was getting so close.  
_  
I'm coming. I'm coming! _Her mind screamed as if there were someone to reply to her.  
  
When she finally reached the figure, she didn't see what she had expected. Instead of a frozen face staring back at her, she saw ice. Just clear, plain, ice lay in the live sarcophagus. Or maybe it was just a bed? Panic swept through her.  
  
"Colonel?" She whispered, glancing around her. "Sir?! Where are you!" She shouted out, spinning around, trying to run further.   
  
She went in circles, becoming frantic. No reply came to her calls. For once straight fear washed over her. Frustration grabbed at her, confusion. A pair of hands landing on her shoulders.  
  
"Carter?"   
  
"Sir?" She spun around to see that familiar square-set face. She saw the same brown eyes that she had come to know over the past seven years. They looked down on her, now, confused, wondering.   
  
"What's wrong, Major?" he asked, as if nothing had happened. He said it as if he hadn't been suspended in the same ice that she had looked at. Or at least, so she thought he had.   
  
Tears welded up in her eyes, though they wouldn't fall. Maybe this was reality. Maybe this was what really happened. She lifted her hand to his cheek only to feel that it was as cold as the ice block.   
  
"My god, Colonel! Your freezing!" She frowned ripping off her jacket and wrapping it around him as it obviously wouldn't fit him.  
  
"Don't worry about it..." He pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm a lot better now....." He placed a kiss on her forehead before pulling back to see her grateful smile. "Come on, Carter. Lets get out of here.." He tugged on her hand.  
  
Sam saw what was coming next, but she couldn't stop it. Before Colonel O'Neill could take a step, his face twisted into agony. Suddenly she couldn't see him, but she could see IN him.   
  
His organs stretched and twisted. One by one the shut down on him. He struggled for breath, causing the weak folds of his lungs to burst from the rabid breaths. She could see him again. He was falling backwards to the mesh of floor. Blood, or a part of his destroyed body, trickled out of the corner of his mouth as he hit the material.   
  
Suddenly, the web gave way, sinking under his weight. Sam fell to her knees, her hand jutting out to catch his just before he twirled down. She gritted her teeth, trying to maintain the grasp she had.   
  
"No! I'm not letting you go this time! Damn it!" She screamed as his fingers started to slide from hers. She gave up her balance to reach down and grab him with the other hand at his wrist. It knocked her off kilter, sending them both twisting to the steam below. Falling. They were always falling....Falling into a circle with several symbols on it, not to unlike the Stargate itself.  
  
"CARTER!" A voice made the female SG-1 member bolt awake from her sleep.   
Apparently she had drifted off at her desk. The papers were sprawled out everywhere around her. Sweat covered her forehead. Red marks were set into her palms where she had been clenching her fingers into them. Gaining her breath she looked up to see Dr. Daniel Jackson.   
  
"What happened?" He asked her with concern. "I heard you screaming all the way down the hall..."  
  
She blinked at him, coming to for the first time, focusing on his words. These days she couldn't tell which was what and what was which. This all seemed like a synthetic reality, molded from her nightmares.   
  
"Nothing, Daniel... nothing..." Clearing her throat, she finally found her voice. br  
"It sure didn't sound like nothing.. " He commented, pulling a chair over close to her. His brows knotted as they often did when he was working on some puzzle of some sort.  
  
"Come on, Sam, we're worried about you... You haven't been the same for two weeks now.... You haven't passed in our report yet, I haven't seen you even open your laptop, and you can't even go past the Stargate...This isn't like you."  
  
"I guess I just can't keep focused... I can't sleep... These damn nightmares keep plaguing me.... When I'm awake, it's no better." She sighed, exhausted. " It's like all these thoughts are in one cohesive jumble inside of my brain, eating away at both my conscience and subconsciouses.... They're in one huge knot I can't untie."  
  
"Nightmares?" he questioned, "About what? O'Neill?"  
  
She only nodded in response. Her eyes focused back onto her desk. A pile of papers and a cold cup of coffee greeted her.  
  
Sighing, her friend took her hand and turned her face to him. "Listen to me, Sam... There's nothing we could have done. You know, it might have actually been the best thing for him. The freezing process might have saved his body from deteriorating under the trauma his, er, changing, caused him! If we find Atlantis, we'll find a way to get him out of there. Who knows, maybe his body will heal itself on it's own by then!" He tried to cheer her up.   
  
"I should have done it, Daniel. I should have pulled away and got that information into me. Than he'd be here safe. You'd have someone who could actually do something,throw their weight around, instead of being a drone!Someone who dosen't dare fight in the command." Her temples throbbed. "If they'd just send us to find it! We could get him out of there!"  
  
"We will, Sam. We'll find a way. But you gotta be the same old tough-women we all know and love. You have big shoes to fill, Major. You gotta pull your weight around and manage that annoying sarcasm at the same time."  
  
Sam chuckled a bit. That was true enough. She had been strong the first two days, but it slowly had beat down on her. Now she had to get back to where she was, and than some!   
  
"Besides," Daniel said with a coy smile.   
  
She raised a brow at him. "Besides, WHAT, doctor?"  
  
"Can you imagine Jack's face if he knew that he was keeping you up at night?" His comment made Sam burst out laughing. "He'd never let you live it down...See, I knew you could smile!"   
  
"You right.." She nodded, flinging the top to her laptop open. "I guess it's back to work, then. And, doctor, you should be getting back too. I need you to get on translating anything you remember in that chamber. Our first clues might be there." She stopped him. "Oh! Wait..." She scribbled down a few things on extra sheet of paper.   
  
"What's this?" Dr. Jackson's eyes ran over the page. She was sketching out a circle with symbols, ancient words, along the lines.  
  
"Just, something that keeps popping up into this crazy head of mine.. Maybe just take a look at it sometime? It probably means nothing...but..." She finished, handing the finished copy to him.   
  
He nodded, smiling at his new CO. "Yes Si...er.. Ma'am!" He chuckled, walking out. He kept his focus on the paper before. He hadn't seen this before, minus a few symbols. The strange part was, Carter couldn't possibly have remembered them. Scratching his head, he headed back to his work lab.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Awakening Mysteries

  
Disclaimer: please see first chapter.   
  
  
Author's note: Thanks to those who replied :) I feed off of reviews. they are much appreciated!   
  
  
I know the 2nd part of this is rather meaty with information. Please forgive if it's confusing :)   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~   
  
  
A gentle tapping came to Carter's doorway. The slight noise was not enough to distract her from her conversation with Dr. Weir. While the women was no Hammond, she at least seemed to understand things much better than some other replacement would have. It took the slamming of a rather thick file in front of her hands to divert her attention.  
  
"Excuse me Doctor, Major, but, I have something!" Daniel stood above the two women proudly. Giddily he flipped the folder open to reveal several copies of the Major's sketch. The scribbles on the pages were most definitely the man's barely legible marks.   
  
"They're coordinates!" he proclaimed, underlining every third than fifth symbol. "But, they were skewed. That's why I couldn't read them at first!"  
  
"How exactly did you come to this conclusion, Dr. Jackson?" Doctor Weir asked while blinking at the sketches. The final copy was about one third of the original's size.   
  
"Major Carter gave me a drawing from a dream she had. At first I thought it was nothing. But, when I slammed a book on it, landed so that it cut directly down the middle of paper. It kind of hit me... " He stopped, grabbing a hand-mirror he had brought along, and placed it against the middle."If you trace this half, and flip it over the other side..."  
  
"The symbols overlap, yes. Why is this important? Is it a more complex type of writing?" The female doctor inquired while Carter just kept listening.   
  
"Well, no, BUT if you cut each of those in half, creating a line through it's opposite symbol until each are cut, they separate out into symbols that are actually words, or, in this case, numbers." He was beaming.  
Sam sighed. "Daniel.. don't you think this might be stretching it a little bit?" The thrilled doctor seemed to dim, causing her to finish the thought. "I want to believe you, and this is quite a discovery. But, even if this is a hint... How come it would be so scrambled? And why would I dream it and not any of you?"  
  
Daniel shrugged. "I'm not sure. You said that it was a nightmare about the Colonel. Maybe it's from him? Maybe he's not frozen, frozen. Maybe he's just in a deep sleep? What if he's seeing this in the chamber and we didn't. If it IS something he's seeing, the image could be reflecting off the ice and snow or bits of metal down there and off the ice he's in a few times until it reaches his mind..."  
  
"Wait, this dialing number...P5X-723.((May all readers please note that this number was taken off of the top of my head. So, if it's already used, please forgive!)) SG-16 just got back from there. They reported nothing unusual." The commander sat down in a chair looking up at them.   
  
"There were a few feline-like creatures there...but their technology didn't appear to be much more advanced than ours. They quickly joined our allegiance though. Apparently the goa'uld gave them a small run a century or two back." She recalled from the report that was handed to her.   
  
"Maybe it's not the people we're looking for. If the Goa'uld gave them trouble a while back maybe there's something in their history that will give us another clue.." Carter suggested.  
  
"Unscheduled Incoming signal..." A red light swirled, the metallic voice only too familiar. Half groaning the three made their way to the Stargate where the iris was being kept locked.  
  
"The Asgard. Thor's signal, Dr. Wier." an airman informed them.   
  
"Open the iris..." Weir sighed.   
  
The Stargate's metal center retracted as the wormhole began to form. As the pool came into view, a small lanky silver alien stepped through. As stated, it was none other than the dear Asgard mentioned.   
  
"Welcome, Thor." Weir greeted him.   
  
Upon seeing the alien, Carter's fists clenched. Her expression remained calm. But, she had to force herself to put a smile on, stepping to the old friend. She nodded to him slowly.  
  
"Ah.. it is a relief to see the planet still thriving, Major Carter." He spoke to her in the same monotone as usual.  
  
"Yes. It is. We managed to defeat Anubis, without your assistance, may I please add." She became a bit hostile.   
  
They had helped the Asgaurd many a time before. While they had returned favors, she thought that their partnership became more of a friendship rather than an allegiance. Friends, in her mind, didn't count favors. They did what they needed to do.   
  
The short alien blinked. "The Asgard decided it best to stay out of this war. We were still too weak in number to have been of much service. The production of ships has been going slower than we had hoped. There is pressure to make each of them as advanced as possible. They were not ready for battle."  
  
"ONE of your ships would equal over twenty of our's statistics in every area combined! Your OLD ships!" She protested.   
  
Teal'c, who had responded to the alarm, placed a hand on Sam's shoulder. "I think it would be wise to conceal one's aggravation in this matter, Major Carter." He offered his bit of advice.  
  
"We apologize for our actions. We realized that we should have come. But by the time our scout arrived, your attack was already underway." The Asgard representative made a slight hand motion, though, characteristically showed no change in voice as to show emotion. "However, the weapon you used to rid yourselves of the fleet is entirely new to us. I am curious to what it was."  
  
Sam bit her lip from saying something that would have only caused a rift. The visitor had kindly forgiven her first outburst, but, she didn't think that he'd take another. She couldn't afford to push her luck.   
  
"There is one of you missing." Thor brushed away that his first question had been ignored. "Where is Colonel O'Neill? Is he injured yet from the battle?"  
  
"You could... say that." Daniel came forward. "He was the one that commanded that weapon you mentioned." The doctor continued to explain what happened to SG-1's CO. Thor listened intently.   
  
"Hmm.. that process of rest is not completely unheard of. There is a planet where they lower the body temperature of their loved ones who are close to death. The decrease in temperature allows the mind and body to heal."  
  
Sam shifted her weight uneasily. She didn't like the sounds of that. "Do they ever wake? How do they counter the process?"  
  
Thor shook his head. "I do not know. I have never been there myself. It is a planet, I believe, called Harlise... I could calculate the coordinates if you would give me just a ..."  
  
" P5X-723?" Daniel asked, not giving him the moment he required.  
  
"Why... yes.." The alien tilted his head. "I think your brain has become more sufficient, Doctor Jackson."  
  
Daniel wasn't quite sure how to take that. But, it seemed to be a compliment. He didn't bother mentioning that it was only an educated guess of sorts. He glanced over at Sam who was squirming like a worm on a hook.   
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Stepping though the 'gate, Teal'c looked around. No sooner had Thor departed, than Dr. Wier had given permission to SG-1 to go back to Harlise. The rebel Jaffa looked around. It was a oddly beautiful place.   
  
The sky had a purple tint to it, rather than blue. The ground and foliage seemed to be a white-blue combination that made it look like everything was springing from snow. A river trickled by, a darker variation of the purple color that was in the sky. It was very peaceful, serene.   
  
Normally Sam would have felt compelled to stop and take samples right then and there, but, not today. They had been told of the direction to go to reach the nearest city. It was about three miles away over relatively easy ground. _Why can't we get it this simple on other missions?_ She pondered.  
  
"I feel like we just stepped into the world of Nox...." Daniel said softly, recalling the fae-like creatures they had once encountered.   
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Some time later, the three companions found themselves coming to what they supposed was the city that was mentioned. By modern human standards, it was more like a small town. Or, at least it appeared to be looking in on it.   
  
The buildings all looked to be made out of a white material that seemed to be like adobe. None stood over three stories tall, with the exception of what looked to be a center building. The roofs were all thatched with a shiny almost shell looking material. The half sun that hung above them glared angrily off of the materials, causing the members of the team to shield their eyes.   
  
"Your weird." a small voice said, causing the team to look down. Staring up at them was a small gray felinoid girl about the age of ten Earth years. Her large saucer-wide blue eyes blinked up at them.   
  
"Excuse me?" Sam asked, shocked that the girl talked in plain English.   
  
"Your like those people who came here two sun cycles ago..."She observed, walking around them. "Ooooh! Pretty!" She snatched Sam's Zat gun with nimble fingers.  
  
"Put that down! It's dangerous!" Daniel said in a low voice, but the child didn't seem to respond to the command.   
  
The result of the little girl's exploration was a chunk of the house material taken off of the city gate. The little creature shrieked, latching onto Sam's leg as she dropped the Zat. With a little whimper she looked up to the Major with teary eyes.  
  
"Daniel Jackson tried to alert you of the hazard, little creature." Teal'c tried to offer his what could be seen as cold comfort. Those who didn't know the Jaffa or his species well generally thought them rather icy people.   
  
"Creature! I'm not a creature! I'm a Kichee, for your information! Your the freaky one!" The girl spat back, regaining her tongue, crossing her arms.  
  
Teal'c nodded, not phased by the girl's retort. He was used to similar reactions. "Than, little Kichee, Do you have a name we could call you by?"  
  
"Shishe!" The girl bowed deeply.  
  
"Shishe," Daniel swept up Sam's Zat from the ground where it had been dropped on firing. "We heard that your people can do a rather amazing thing."  
  
"Eternal dreaming?" The felinoid's ears perked up. "We do it all the time, but other people never ask for us. They think we're going to rob them. Stupid idiots!"  
  
"Yes. I believe that's what it's called. Could you take us to someone who's capable of preforming the procedure?" Sam asked with a smile, noting that the girl was now staring at the clasp of her vest. Smirking, she ripped it off,and waved it in front of Shishe's face. "You take us, and you can have this."  
  
Shishe blinked a few times before hopping around, and through the city gate. "Well come ON, then! Your the ones who wanted to see him!" Her tail swished back and forth verging on anxiety. "COME ON!"   
  
~*~*~  
True to her word, the small girl lead them through the labyrinth of streets and city sidewalks. Internally, it really did seem like a city. Hundreds of ear-and-tail creatures made their way through their day around them. A few stopped and stared. Others just shrugged of the appearance of these new beings.   
  
The girl began to go in a slow run now. Not too surprisingly, she had now gone on all fours. Daniel noted that the hip bones on her seemed to pop back and the ankles bend, allowing Shishe's arms and legs to be about the same length when crouching. Or, in this case, running.   
  
Soon enough the company found themselves standing before a small dusty office that stood right before the center building. Shishe lead them through the curtain that acted as a door to the seemingly small building.  
  
"Hey, Doctor Prist, ya' here?" The girl shouted.  
  
A hobbling felinoid with a tattered brown coat answered the call. A wavy-carved stick helped the man walk, but his presence seemed very much stronger than his body was. His coal eyes sparkled at them.   
  
"Well, I have visitors!" He stated, bowing before the humans. "Are you here to communicate with a friend, or to be laid to sleep?"  
  
Sam blinked slowly, glancing down at him. He stood almost a full foot shorter than her. "Neither, Doctor. I'm Major Samantha Carter. These are my companions, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c. We come from Earth. Representatives came here a while ago to establish peace with the planet." She paused slowly, seeing if he was getting it.  
  
"Yesss... Yesss..." He seemed to be pondering something. "You caused quite the gossip around our little town. What brings us the pleasure of your company once again?"  
  
"We have a friend who we think might be in a similar status as that of your.. er.. customers." Daniel stepped forward to speak. "We wanted to know if we could ask you about the process, where this method came from. You see, he didn't wish to be put into the sleep. At least, not really. We're trying to figure out a way to reverse what happened."  
  
The cat-man nodded, waving a hand for them to follow him. He threw back the curtain leading to the next room that he had come from. If one peeped in, they'd see several text books scattered here and there. But the man's focus seemed to be on the stairwell at the far side of the room.   
  
Making their way down the staircase the team entered a large room. All around them were felinoids who looked as if they were in deep sleeps. Some of them were paler than others, stiffer. All, however seemed to rest on plush beds, covered with blankets. By each chiller looking creature there was an extra bed. Some were filled, some were not.   
  
"Eternal Dreaming is just as it says. In our species, we have three levels of sleep. By lowering one's body temperature slowly, we can induce an almost instant state of deepest sleep. While the erratic pulse and eyelid movement that signals quite like you REM stage." He explained. "Constant exposure without lowering the heart rate is extremely dangerous. However, we found that if we slowly sedated the body before hand, it controls the functioning of the body's main organs as they rest."  
  
"This man here, for example," the doctor moved to one of the newer patients who was still being monitored, " entered his dreaming two days ago. To make sure that his body responded, we've kept him on monitors and check his stats frequently. If all seems well, we'll slow the checking to once per day, week, and so on as long as they wished to stay in the sleep."  
  
"Did this man bare any physical problems?" Teal'c looked at the man with deep interest. He was more human than the felines. He suspected possibly of Kichee and Nox breeding, as strange as it sounded. His eyes moved along the monitors with suspicion.   
  
The doctor moved, walking over to him. "When the body temperature is lowered, it goes into a sort of hibernation. Almost everything closes down except the lungs, heart, and most importantly the mind. That's how loved ones and friends are able to communicated with one another while one's sleeping. "  
  
"Dr. Prist," Sam interrupted. "How exactly would one communicate with another? I mean, with such low oxygen levels to the brain, it would seem that the brain would all but shut down. Wouldn't it only preform it's bare necessities?"  
  
Prist nodded slowly. "That was the initial thought, even though the old text seemed to speak of different." He wobbled over to a stool to sit. "But, when the body is relaxed, or at times of high stress, the subconscious wanders. If it is lonely, it may seek something familiar. Or, vice versa. If a friend of a resting's wished to communicate with them, then we'd have to put them in a extremely deep sleep not too unlike the other's. It would allow the mind to seek what it most wanted or what was most familiar."  
  
Daniel nodded slowly, looking around him. "This friend of ours. We think that Major Carter here received images from him. Is this possible?"  
  
"Why, yes." Prist said as if it were completely common. "If she was standing near him at the time she fell asleep. I assume you are all very close companions."  
  
"That's... the odd thing." Sam noted, kneeling in front of the sitting doctor. "I was thousands of miles away... And as crazy as this may sound, what he showed me, sent us here."  
  
The Kichee's eyes widened to the size of fifty-cent pieces. "Now.. That IS strange!" He thought on what was said for a moment. "Perhaps you are the closest to that friend, or the last one he saw. Maybe there's something else he could need to tell you."  
  
  
~*~*~   
  
The next few hours were spent digging around the Doctor's library going through scrolls and leather-bound books. They had found some things here and there, but nothing that jumped out at them. Daniel's brain ached from translating such fine print and relaying what he read a few times per sentence.  
  
" I do not wish to frighten any of you." Prist broke the silence that had washed over them. "But, for a mind to reach so far out... There must be something of great importance! In all these reports I have never seen such a thing quiet happen. Than again, the work of the Ancients are strong." The team had revealed to the Kichee doctor the whole story.   
  
"Than you have no idea how to awaken O'Neill?" Teal'c said with a hint of dismay in his voice.   
  
"Well, I'm not positive. But, I have an idea." The team turned their eyes to him. "If I were to be permitted to visit your planet, I could put Major Carter into the kind of sleep I do for my patients families. If we were allowed down into this chamber you described with him, perhaps the images would be clearer, last longer. The distance of communication wouldn't place so much strain on either body."  
  
"There's only one thing." The Doctor concluded. "Major Carter will have to recall in great detail all she sees in one meeting, no matter how painful or odd it might be. She would be our only resource."  
  
A silence came over them again. Sam stared at her feet, her eyes looking heavy. Daniel tapped a pen against his teeth. Teal'c blinked into space. The doctor sat motionless.  
  
"Not....necessarily..." it was Daniel's voice who had slaughtered the quiet. "Do you remember when we had that 'Super Soldier' on our hands a few years ago? We hooked up a device that projected to us his thoughts from him just barely thinking them..."  
  
"That... just might work!" Sam's eyes brightened. "Either way, it's worth a shot!"  
  
Nothing else needed to be said. Each member went their separate ways. Teal'c went to cross check if it was alright for Dr. Prist to come to Earth. Sam went with him to recover the machine that was needed. Daniel stayed to continue looking through the texts, and to guide the doctor with the materials he needed to the 'gate.  
  
Soon, they would test their theories. If only they knew what they were setting in motion. Maybe then they would have realized their mistakes. If only they knew....  
  



	3. More Questions

Disclaimer: Please see first chapter. 

The ancient chamber felt more like a tomb. Even though four people stood around it now, it was deathly silent. If one strained, they might be able to hear a  
member exhaling or a piece of equipment being shifted. If they stopped breathing, the furious pounding of hearts would have almost ruptured each eardrum.

Though things were quiet each person worked efficiently, preparing what they had been assigned. The machine Daniel had recalled had been dug out of SGC's storage area, was adjusted by Sam so that they wouldn't have to look on in first person, and set on a fold-up table. An extra cot had been brought down from the infirmary, with a fluffier mattress placed on it by Dr. Prist's orders. And ever, the Colonel's stiff eyes watched.

"We're just about ready." The Kichee doctor observed, shattering the stillness. He glanced over at Major Carter. He had watched her intently over the past hour  
that they had been setting up. She seemed almost rigid. "Major?"

"Hmm?" She inquired, not looking up from the machine on the table.

"Would you like to lay down now?" He suggested noting her reluctance to respond.

Sam complied, but stopped momentarily in front of the Colonel. A shiver ran down her spine, making her unable to move. The moment her legs functioned again, she proceeded to the bed, slipping under the covers that had been placed there.

"I don't know, Daniel." She said as he connected a piece that correlated with the visual machine. "I don't think it's safe for you to be looking in my head. It might be hazardous to your health."

Daniel smirked, shaking his head slowly. "You know, when I said you had to take on a bit of sarcasm in Jack's place, I didn't think you'd adopt it."

"I aim to please." She sighed as Prist came over to her, his left ear twitching as he gently as he took her arm into his furred hand in order to place an IV in and attach the monitoring devices at the tips of her fingers. She watched patiently as the monitors  
kicked in.

The consistent wave of her heartbeat lulled her eyes into a droop. It was comforting. She saw something she felt in a way she could understand. And right now, it  
told her that she was scared as hell. Damn. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Did she really want them seeing into her mind. In there, she couldn't hold up her shields. She couldn't hide behind a calm composure and technical wit.

"Your going to feel a little sleepy, tired, a bit cold." Prist explained as her eyes became even heavier. "Just relax your body, your mind. That's It." he coaxed. "Now, picture the Colonel in your mind,call out to him. He'll come."

The Kichee's voice became very distant. She could barely make it out. Everything was so loud! She heard her heart going slightly off beat, her lungs dragging in air. She heard the blood coursing through the labyrinth of veins that tangled inside her. Her head  
pounded.

Focus. She whispered to herself. She took as deep of a breath as she could, forming a mental picture of her Commanding Officer. She sent out memories by the dozen. The exasperated version of him from when they had first met, his aggravation at possible SG members as he inhaled strawberry jell-o, his confused expression as she attempted to explain to him how something worked, and his quirky grin he put on anytime he accomplished something flashed by her. The last image shook her. She saw his distorted and unfocused face as he lay in the chamber chair after  
executing the attack on Anubis.

"Colonel? I'm here. Where are you? Colonel O'Neill?" She called out with her mind as she vaguely remembered Prist telling her to do. No answer. She pondered; it  
had worked when he was in the chair. Would it work now? "Jack? Jack, where are you?"

Something had gotten through. She found herself flying through the same black web-tunnel as in her nightmare. Her stomach clenched, hoping she wouldn't have to  
relive that again. Relief filled her as she zipped past the empty chamber. For once, everything turned white.

She wasn't in web anymore. She was in the mountains. Sam stood before a boat ramp, hovering over a nicely sized lake. She turned around, confused. That is, until she saw the cabin. A grin spread across her face. If O'Neill were sleeping, it would be a nightmare without a place abundant in fish.

"Carter?" A dazed voice asked her. Sure enough, when she turned around, there stood Jack, rod in hand. "I thought you said you wouldn't come fishing with me." He smirked.

"Well, sir, you gave me no choice this time!" She retaliated, only for an uncomfortable silence to spread between the two. "Jack, do you remember what happened?"

Daniel watched as they flew through space only to land in the peaceful landscape. So the mind did retreat to a comfort zone in times of distress. He thought, eyes  
sparkling at this discovery.

He watched as Jack appeared out of nowhere. He watched as the two exchanged short sentences, goofing around as if they were simply in the SGC cafeteria. It hadn't  
exactly occurred to them that they wouldn't be able to hear. But, if they could remember what they saw, it would at least give them a heads up.

Something tugged at Daniel's thoughts. What if Jack wasn't the key they needed? What if it was the Ancient he had practically became? Though Jack had reached out to Sam, did he know how to free himself? Or was he just begging for release?

"I remember...Squids." He said, giving a typical Jackism. He looked out to the lake as fog started rolling over them, into the banks,stepping closer to her. "I remember feeling danger; felling I had to get rid of it. I knew I had to protect people who...who... who where important to me." He glanced around, looking at his feet.

"I felt...very distant... Like something had taken over me, and I was just moving around. It hurt" Sam was shocked that he had used a reference to pain. "I felt like I had run a few hundred miles in the rain."

"Than, I heard you. You were calling to me... yelling at me...telling me to stay... which, may I remind you about ordering around your CO!"

"You resigned." She said quickly.

"True."

"Sir,Please, is there anything you know anything that will help get..." She stopped as he vanished once more. "Sir?"

Daniel watched as the dream world went white again in a blinding flash. Sam was falling, her arms spread out as if they were wings, forcing her to glide. No gracefulness did her flight have, only the clumsiness of a nesting chick.

The archaeologist almost winced as he saw her hit a black floor, the white walls around her. She forced herself onto her knees, and seemed to be yelling out into the room. The Colonel didn't answer this time. Instead, a figure with flaming hair stood before him, one very familiar.

"Ayiana!" Daniel exclaimed. It couldn't possibly be her! But the one who appeared in front of Sam now looked identical to the frozen women they had assumed to be an Ancient a couple of years ago. The only problem, the same Ancient was dead!

His eyes were glued to the image. Ayianna had walked to the obviously confused Major, and knelt down to her. She placed her hands on her temples looking down at her almost lovingly, sympathetic. She graced Sam's forehead, which was oddly sweaty, with the palm of her hand. The moment after, Sam's eyes were closed.

Daniel's brows knotted. How could someone be asleep in theirsleep? But she was, and she looked as if she was in agony. He looked over to where the Major lay only to see her face contorted in the same pain. What was going on? He glanced to the vision, only to see Ayianna's face, mouthing something that he could not understand.

"Will you not wake her up DoctorPrist?" Teal'c asked the doctor who was frantically who was working near Sam moments after everything in her mind went black.

"I... I can't!" He said, frantic. "Nothing like this has ever happened before!" He exclaimed, glancing at the monitors beside her. "Her heart is beating... ten beats per minute. But, she's breathing perfectly fine!This doesn't make work out right! Not for your physical  
body at least. It's almost like she's gone into a form of comatose!"

Daniel looked around in confusion. "But, Ayianna wasn't a bad person! None of the Ancients were! She healed all those others at the sake of her own life! She would never hurt Sam!"

"Perhaps it is not Ayianna, DoctorJackson. Maybe it is a collection of their minds." Teal'c suggested.

Stopping to ponder this for a moment, Daniel slowly nodded. "Maybe...Maybe your right. Jack gained the knowledge of the ancients, plural, more than one. What  
if a collective consciousness is answering her? It's searching her mind just as she was searching for them. And, so, they appeared to her in a common form, so it was more comfortable."

He looked down at Sam, frowning down at her sickly state. He had supported this idea so that they could free one member from sleep. Now it seemed that he had only condemned another. He gritted his teeth. "I never intended this, Sam. I don't know why they did this. I'll figure this out. I promise you..." He whispered.

Sam twirled around. Whispers. Screams. Cries. They all flooded into her head with the force of a sixteen wheeler. She couldn't make sense of any of them. One moment she had been joking with the Colonel, and now she was being rammed with voices.

"Saaa-man-thhha" She heard her voice stretched out. Glancing up she saw a very familiar face. Ayianna, the young Ancient that had given her life to save several  
SG members.

"Ayianna?" She questioned. How could she be here? She had passed on. Than again, how could any Ancient be here? Unless when they passed their experiences traveled into one place, almost like a stream of knowledge tucked away in a separate dimension then Earth's own? If there was one thing Major Carter had learned in all these years, it was to never doubt anything.

The "young" women nodded slowly, her eyes glowing for a moment. Glowing. Fear spread through her. It reminded her far too much of the Gao'uld. She was about to open her mouth and ask what was happening, but the women moved to her, and gave her almost a sickening look of pity.

When the Ancient's hand passed over her head, Sam's eyes involuntarily slammed shut. Images flooded past her. Several people, dressed in light fabrics, ran in terror. She saw thousands of faces, all sobbing, bloodied, or terrified. She smelled the blood, she felt their sadness. She heard their screams, their pleas.

Black clouds flew over head. A small girl screamed for her mother. An old man hobbled through the streets of a pearly-white city. A young women huddled over the limp body of her husband, her infant crying out at her hip. Boils covered the body of a stranger in an alley. Humane horrors brought tears to the Major's eyes.

"Why are you showing me this?" She screamed out into the abyss of chaos, as if waiting for a reply. Why show her this suffering? What were the black clouds? Why was she finding no answers.

"Because...Your suffering is not unlike our own. Your strengths. Your weaknesses. Your fears. They are the same as ours were. But, maybe you can avoid our fate." Ayianna's voice came to her.

She saw then, a Stargate. In front of it Ayianna stood accompanied by two others. She was in similar garb as the others she had seen, with the exception that it was laced in what looked like gold. A dirty women, who looked like a servant, was dialing a address making the circle go WOOOOSH.(right Chrissy? ;-)) One male placed an arm around Ayianna's waist and ushered her towards the Gate. His eyes flew to the skies as he saw the strange black clouds coming towards them.

Her vision flashed once more. Sam looked in on the same chamber she now lay in. It radiated the same deep blue color as it had when Anubis had been attacking. Ayianna was placed into the same chamber as Jack now stood in. The male that had accompanied her placed his hand to hers before stepping back with a tear in his eye. When he was out of the chamber's reach, it activated, freezing Ayianna into the block of ice that they had found her so many years later in.

The young man looked in tears back at her frozen form before he spun around. Ebony particles swirled down through the openings left from their entrance. The particles soon took form, almost in the same manner as the replicators, to carve the body of a rugged man with glowing eyes. The man looked at him with a tight-set jaw, the tears evaporating. Determination shined brightly giving a natural glow to his irises, as if challenging the phantom.

Sam didn't see all of what happened. All she saw was the particles separating once more to decompose into a fine dust, and flood over the man. She heard a defining scream, a vow of defeat, and saw his badly burned body crawling to slump beside the sleeping chamber. He closed his eyes to enter eternal sleep, not in defeat, but in victory.

With his last breaths, his hand was placed at the right corner of the chamber Ayianna lay in. He took a sharp dagger from his belt, and slit his palm open. His blood spread across dirt covered skin as he drew a long line from on corner to another. He whispered something in Ancient, but Sam understood it.

"By birth and death, time and cycle, sleep for hope, trust the brave, live by truth, dream in peace." Sam had never known the Ancients to be superstitious, or mythical in much sense. But, as he spoke those words, a wall of light encased him and Ayianna. When her eyes adjusted, they were both gone. The room was empty. The particles gave out a screech.

The astrophysicist tried to cover her ears from the sound. It didn't work, it only amplified it. Her body felt like it was on fire, as if the light and scream had gone directly through her. Suddenly, she felt numb. She was on the shore near the boat dock once more. Colonel O'Neill was leaning over her, whispering the same thing as the man Ayianna had known was saying.

"DanielJackson!" Teal'c exclaimed. Daniel was still near Sam. The moment Teal'c had shouted to him, Sam's vitals had soared back up to normal. The Archaeologist's head snapped over to the machine.

On the screen, stars filled the heavens. He could see Sam laying on the beach, water lapping at her feet. He saw Jack leaning over her, pulling her up to her feet. He seemed to be telling her something before he pushed her away from him,disappearing into the fog.

"DON'T!" Sam shot up from the cot, calling out. Daniel ran over to her, trying to push her back to lay down. She would have none of it. She ripped the IV out of her arm along with whatever else was attached to her.

"Sam. SAM! STOP IT!" He shook her until she looked at him. "What happened! Why did everything go out?" He demanded.

"No. No time, Daniel. I have no time." She hopped up, and began looking around the room. She started feeling the walls, all the while explaining as best she could to them what had happened.

Her fingers caught on to something at the side of one of the archways. She breathed deeply as she tugged on it, extracting a large crystal dagger. It was the same one as in her "dream." Red still stained the blade.

She nodded, and went over to where Jack was being held. "Daniel. I need you to find out where I was at the lake. I don't think it was by the Colonel's cabin. Teal'c, if you can try to remember anything odd. Maybe a old folk tale or legend of your people that might encluded something like those black things.. It would help."

Daniel shook his head,realizing Carter's intentions. "Sam, don't do this! Let us come with you!"

Sam shook her head. "Don't even try, consider it an order. You'll die." She said nothing else in English. Instead, she slashed her hand, and muttered the words of the Ancients that seemed to be imprinted in her brain now. She was gone in a flash of white.

A/N: Sorry for the cliff hanger. Comments and Suggestions, like always, are grately welcomed.


	4. Extended Feud

Disclaimer: Please see first chapter.

A/N: Thank you SO much for being patient with me! I'll try stop the cliff hangers.

Three.

Sam felt the light consume her. She didn't feel the same pain. Instead, she felt like she was being gently hugged, held. Her eyes shut as she let out a small breath. The tension that had built up in her over the past few weeks seemed to evaporate. When she opened them again, she was in her home. She was snuggled deeply beneath her comforter. Sunlight washed in onto her face.

Her head throbbed. Had it all been a dream? Had all of this been one long nightmare? It had to be. She groaned and swung her feet onto the floor. The clock read 6:00. She had to be to SGC in an hour.

When she looked down at herself, she found that she was wearing a long black dress. Why? Her mind pondered. Her head swung to the mirror. She saw her mother's pearls around her neck. She saw black stains down her cheeks left there from tear-taken mascara. Peaking at her bedroom doorway, she heard music drifting, people chattering.

Blinking several times, she opened the door and walked down her hallway. In her living room many people congregated. They as well were all in formal black. Why were there so many long faces? She searched all their eyes as they turned to her, but found no answers. That is, until she looked on her coffee table.

There, several pictures of her CO were arranged. Candles surrounded the photos. Confusion flooded over her. This only seemed like one thing. She didn't want to believe it.

"Sam!" She turned around to see Daniel. He frowned, pulling her into a hug. " We had thought you had left... I..." He sighed. "Thank You. I know how hard this is for you..." He seemed to be half choking on his own words.

"...Daniel. Where is he?" She asked. He looked at her with pity, thinking her only in denial.

" Sam... You were there when he flat lined..." He withdrew and placed a weighty hand on her shoulder.

Flat-lined? Oh god. She clenched her stomach, memories flooding past her. The ice he was embedded slowly melted away. Tubes and lines pasted all over his body made moving nearly impossible to reach him. She looked down at him, a tear falling onto his cheek. His eyes opened from their sleeping state to look at her. She felt a gentle squeeze to her hand. The alerts blared. She was shoved back. The paddles didn't work.

Her face drained of the little color it held. She felt as if she was going to throw up anything that she had managed to hold down. She felt herself reaching for something to support herself on.

Samantha Carter, Major of the USAF, couldn't handle this pain. It wasn't anything physical. Though, a heart attack might resemble how she was feeling at the moment. After all she had faced, all that had been done to her, this was the one thing she could not handle. A man that was closer than a brother, lover, father, or even twin could ever be to her was gone for good.

Her legs gave way, sending her falling back onto the couch behind her. She heard Daniel muttering to her. She felt General Hammond's hand come down to her back. She heard Teal'c telling her that it was not a sign of weakness to cry. But she didn't see any of them. She just felt.

She felt numb, like she had gone off into her own world. For a moment the world stopped. She heard the lines of a song _"I find comfort here, 'cuz I know what is lost. Hope is always fear, for the pain it may cost."_ echoing in her head. There was no one to fool in that world.

The house faded away in front of her eyes. She no longer sat in her living room. She was in the halls of SGC. "What the hell?" She whispered to herself. This couldn't be real. It was another dream. She was getting confused, not knowing now what was reality and what wasn't.

"Sammie?" She heard a familiar voice came from behind her. She turned to see the face of father.

Daniel rubbed his forehead, slipping off his glasses. His head throbbed. When the three males had looked at the room when the light calmed down, Sam was no longer kneeling at the Chamber. And what was more unnerving, Jack's face had changed. His eyes were now shut, his mouth drawn back in a mix of horror and pain.

Dr. Prist had been quite shaken; his fur was quite noticeably sticking up on the back of his neck, his tail stiffly pointing out. Teal'c had almost made a recognizable facial expression of a sad confusion. Things weren't clearing up at all! They were, if possible, getting worse by the minute.

Now, back in his lab, Daniel could make nothing of the images he had kept going over and over. The only thing that might have been useful was the stars. And they were being run through SGC's records as he spoke. He sighed in aggravation as he played the recording over one last time.

"Have you discovered anything, DoctorJackson?" Teal'c inquired, looking up at his friend.

"Well... I'm pretty sure what Ayianna was mouthing was the words 'She hides in chaos.' But... I have no idea what that means! If we just had something else to go on" He threw his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. "What about you?

"There is no legend which matches MajorCarter's description. It is possible that what she envisioned is before Apophis, or even Ra himself. He forbade any to talk of the Gods of past before his time.

Daniel tapped his pen lightly against his teeth as he thought about that. His eyes wandered over several print outs, his eyes resting back on the glossy print of the stars. He picked it up, his jaw dropping.

"THAT'S IT!" He jumped up and ran over to where Doctor Prist was taking a cat nap.' "Excuse me, Doctor?" He shook him gently awake. "I'm sorry about this, but.. Does this look familiar, at all?

The Felinoid blinked the sleepiness out of his eyes. With that taken care of, he glanced at the paper. His irises widened. "Why... This looks like it's over the hills, by the river. That can't be! Well, even if it is.. there's nothing there.. Except a few stepping stones.

Daniel nodded. "Well, that's the biggest lead we have right now. We're going to have to take it.

Two.

"Dad!" She exclaimed, a smile growing on her face. Even though this reality she seemed to be in "I thought you said you wouldn't be able to come around for... well, for a really long time!"

Jacob Carter nodded slowly, stepping closer to his daughter. Pulling her into a tight hug. Sam was once again confused, but returned the gesture. When her hands rested on her father's back, however, it seemed to be shifting with a jerk.

"Dad?" She pulled back, looking to see tears in his eyes. "Dad. What's wrong?" There had been only a few occasions when she had even seen her father anywhere close to tears.

"Sammie... I only have a little while here. They're...they're letting me say good-bye. I... I can't come back this time, Sam. I'm sorry

"...Why?" Her voice and eyes turned into ice. Her heart throbbed with this new pinch. It wasn't enough that Jack had just died. Now the one damn person that kept her on her feet was being locked as a prisoner on another world.

"They feel that with Anubis gone, we are finally are winning the war. They don't find an alliance to be necessary, nor at any time in the future. I'm sorry; I tried to convince them different. But, they will not listen to me... I was almost exiled, Sel'mek taken from me.

Images ran through Sam's head. He wouldn't ever be there again. He wouldn't be there to see her next promotion, to walk her down the aisle, to see his next grandchild be born. Though, none of those were likely in the first place. Him being banned from her forever was unspeakable. Her throat felt parched.

"Then stay! If they're going to treat you like that, stay here with us!" Sam protested, finding her voice at last.

Jacob shook his head. "No, Sam. That wouldn't be fair to Sel'mek. Those are his people. Even as close as we are, I can not take him from his people.

"But he can take you away from me!"

"Sam, baby... I know you've had a lot thrown at you... I know how close you and Jack were. For God's sake, you worked as his second for seven years! But you'll understand one day. You'll understand why I had to do this." He tried to calm her down, but it wasn't working.

"NO! No, Dad, You don't know! You'll NEVER know! I will never accept this! Those little bastards have taken and taken from us! Now they want to rip away from me my FATHER! NO. I will NOT just sit here, put on a Oh-gosh-gee-see-ya-later-Pap look and send you off!"

Taking her shoulders and cupping her face, General Carter looked empathetically at her. "Sammie..."

"STOP giving me that look! Everyone is treating me like I'm some lost puppy! You want me to be alright, then act like normal!" She hissed, pulling away. She wouldn't let the near-by airmen see tears in her eyes.

Jacob sighed, his normally alert shoulder slouching down in defeat. He nodded slowly, letting out a small cough. "Alright, Samantha. Stay mad at me, I can't change your mind. Your too much like your mother that way..." He chuckled deeply in memory. "But, if you come around a little but, I'll be heading out in an hour..."

When he received no response from her, he walked behind her and kissed the top of her head. "I love you, Sam. I always will... Good-bye, sweety."

The twin suns burned above them. The reflection from the glassy-white foliage and the gleam from the purple-blue waters made looking around without sunglasses nearly impossible. Well, unless you were a Kichee, in which case fur and "eye whiskers naturally reduced the gleam. Either way midday was not a pleasant time.

Dr. Prist hobbled up the hill he had mentioned earlier, leading them along the river side. "There." Squinting, he looked up towards the sky, making a small circle with his bent finger. "That's about where they would be seen if the suns were to sink. And there," His finger lowered to make another invisible circle towards the ground. "Are the stones I spoke of."

Daniel nodded at the old felinoid, walking over to the stones indicated. Dropping to his knees, he moved his fingers over the inscriptions on the stone. The writing was that of an ancient form of Latin, looking almost like that of the ancients. He glanced up at the doctor as if to ask if he knew what it said, but received only a curious look in return.

Taking a deep breath, Daniel tuned back. It spoke of a feud, of sickness. But it did not say by whom or what. He blinked as slowly remembered the time when they ventured to the planet that ended up carrying the aging mechanisms. There Teal'c had pointed out that the sacred symbols had to be activated in a certain sequence.The only problem was that he didn't know the code.

His nose shifted a few times, forcing his glasses to slip back up the bridge to where they should be sitting. It was a nervous habit, and probably the reason he had not yet opted for contacts. His brain had fallen into 'work mode' instantly on command, setting him to start playing around with what looked like finger-tip sized holes in each of the stones as every piece he read clarified just a small piece more of the puzzle.

After a half hour in the ghastly sun, Daniel grinned. "I think I have it!" He exclaimed,crawling along the stones, placing in certain fingers in each holes in different stones. The moment he finished, the disks started to rotate.

As he backed away from them, they shot up into the sky with a white beam. Before them a temple erected itself almost instantaneously. Columns now stood where each stone was. A white shimmer surrounded the pillars causing even more pain to the two human-based forms, and discomfort to Prist.

"I believe you were correct, DanielJackson." Teal'c spoke up, his eye twitching at the sight.

The Kichee's eyes grinned. "Never in all my years have I seen something quite so beautiful! Shall we not venture inside?" He asked with a giddy expression covering his furred face.

One.

Sam was about to loose what little part of sanity she had left. Her father had departed about an hour ago. And now Dr. Wier's permanent replacement, some newly-turned General she had never heard of until he took over SGC and had no idea who she was, wanted to see her. The message was delivered in a grim manner, and she expected no more of a cheery reason.

She knocked on the hard wood door of the head office. A rather booming voice bid her enter, to which she responded in action. The moment the door's soft 'click' of closure pinged, she had regreeted even stepping in.

"Major Carter." The new General had a rough looking face. He was hard-shouldered, and had piercing blue eyes. He reminded her oddly of her drill sergeant when she had gone through boot camp. Oh! The memories!

"Yes, sir. I was told you wished to see me." She replied with a cold voice, though nothing that would be heard as offensive and worth remarking on.

"Sit down, Major." The General half barked. The thought 'drill sergeant ran through her head for the secound time in three minutes.

She did as ordered, and watched him pace around the desk. He stopped on the opposite side of her, flipping open her folder. She blinked. What had happened? Had she given him the wrong impression of something?

"In the now going on eight years you've been employed here, Major Cater, I've seen nothing but good reports about you... Which made me to overlook your recent behavior." He started, lifting his chin a bit. Oh yea, definitely pulling the intimidation card.

"My recent behavior, sir?"

"Refusal of leave, assistance, locking yourself in your lab or on-base quarters for hours on end...on that one account two _days_... The list continues, Major. That I shrugged off. But your performance today in the hallway was overheard and seen by many. I can not shake off all of the concerns and complaint reports handed to my desk. I need you to report to Dr. MacKenzie for an evaluation"

Sam closed her eyes. "Sir, please. I'm not in need of a psychiatrist. I know you haven't been here long and we don't really know each other, so please let me point out something to you. I've had a hell of a year. I don't cope with things like normal people. I focus on something, and through that take out my frustration now-"

"Are you displeased with me, Major? That comment was a little out of line." He spoke over her, obviously not hearing past the 'let me point out' line.

"Permission to speak freely?" She said, biting her lip.

"Granted."

"If your asking if I'm a little upset they gave us someone with no prior experience in this field your position, quite frankly sir, I'm pissed. I'm not saying your not capable, but it would help matters if you tried to understand the members that your commanding. I meant no offence by that Sir. I'm just trying to get you to understand."

The General leaned over his table. "Carter, that was a thin line you walked. And while I appreciate your suggestion, I still order that you visit Dr. MacKenzie. If you will not, then I have no choice but to relieve you of your command of SG-1 until it is seen fit. You will also be escorted from this building until further notice."

"Sir. Please." Her jaw tightened. "What is he going to tell you? That I'm going through post-traumatic stress? Loosing your best friend, your.. your commanding officer, and your father in a matter of MONTHS will make anyone go a little off." She stood up, trying not to scream. That would only get her in deeper.

"Exactly." The General responded. "With further denial, Major, you have given me no choice." He went to the door, becoming an airman. "Escort Major Carter to her quarters and to the locker room before up to the first level. I'll have someone up there to make sure she gets home safely."

Sam's jaw dropped. "...Sir?"

"Consider yourself removed from this program until further notice, Major."

Hatred filled her eyes when she responded with a harsh 'yes sir'. But, instead of making it to the door, she burst out into tears completely involuntarily. The General only barked at her.

"I. AM.SORRY!" She blew it, screaming. " I am SORRY. But right now, EVERYTHING I have in this DAMN world is GONE. CAN you COMPREHEND that!" She threw her hands up in the air. "Hell, I don't know if I'm even here right now! For all I know, this could be some other damn trick!"

" Maybe I do need a shrink.. Maybe I'm going crazy, maybe you should lock me up! But at least in that little white cell will keep me all of THIS! All of this damn pain. I can't fucking breath!" She clutched the area around her left collarbone, leaning over as she was almost hyperventalating. Years of anguish came through in that one moment.

Before the drill-sergeant-General could say anything else, Sam was gone once again.

The suns were setting fast, and the temperature dropping rapidly. The what seemed to be an energy field that rested along the walls sparked small balls of light as it became more dim in the sky. Daniel rushing around mumbling to himself, as he had been for hours now.

"I.. I.. I think I got it!.. This.. wow. This, This is amazing!" His mouth curled into a grin. "The Ancients! They're.. They've.. I think they might ACTUALLY be gods! Well, sure, most were ascended, therefore gods in that sense, but..."

"What do you mean?" Prist came over to where he had been standing.

"Teal'c has said a few times that the Gao'uld are scavengers by nature. So who's to say they didn't take the adaptation of human mythology as well? There was one early Gao'uld...well, I'm not even sure if he was a Gao'uld... he might be an ancestor of some kind... But, that's not as important right now."

"What is important is what he did. Upuaut that's what he called himself. He's a very...very.. minor Egyptian god. In fact, most of the time people just crossed him over with Anubis. He's your typical war god, said to be the leader of the king's advancement when it came to war."

"At the same time there was an Ancient much older then him, Mayet. She was a goddess in many ways. In mythology, she was a goddess of balance. She kept things from going one way or another." Daniel walked around as he talked, showing them where he was reading all of this from.

She was mostly known in times of peace, of choosing fertile and barren lands. The Ancient seemed to work in the same way. She was a council member, and ambassador to the races known..."

Adjusting his glasses once, he continued. "Upuaut didn't like this. He feared her. And so, he engineered this ...virus, for the lack of a better word. He developed a micro-civilization of these things that consumed or defeated whatever they were told to. That's exactly what they did."

Teal'c raised a brow. "You are suggesting that it is this civilization that killed the Ancients, DoctorJackson?"

Daniel nodded slowly. "Yes. Exactly. They killed off all of those who couldn't ascend. Of corse, this would have tilted the scales of power. So Mayet created a haven, a realm of her own. It would be accessible to those who knew the way, who were worthy of being saved."

" After completing this place, she attacked Upuaut directly by gaining the power to destroy his army. I think this is how a few of them survived.. and.. I'm almost positive that's how Ayianna made it."

Doctor Prist jumped in. "Just like Major Carter reported. She told of the odd story between this Ayianna and the two servants."

"Yes, but, I think Ayianna failed." He walked over to the electric wall, his finger making a small circle. In the circle more symbols appeared. "This speaks of a trial. It's like a high-school grade system. If you fail one quarter, you can still pass if you score high enough to pass for the semester. If you get valedictorian, you get a nice chunk of cash."

Prist wrinkled his nose. " I do not understand this."

"I think that Ayianna received the right to survive, but she didn't complete the whole task. After creating this realm, Mayet was drained enough to have to rest almost permanently." He tried to explain. " If she completed the whole task, I think Ayianna would have awoken Mayet from this sleep."

Teal'c made his way over to his friend. Information buzzed in his head. "Does this lead you to any closure on how to find MajorCarter?"

"Yes. Actually. I think that she went into Mayet's test. If she completes it... I don't know. Mayet might awaken. She might find out how to free Jack, she might stay there... I ... I'm not sure."

Doctor Prist turned to look at the last light slip over the horizon. "All hope lies on Major Carter herself now. I hope that she is well...

For yet another time today, Carter found herself in a place mysteriously. It was white as the room in her dream had been. But there were shapes in this room. And at the end of a long corridor, a women of pure energy slowly took form.

Sam stood up and made her way to the women. She was undeniably beautiful. Her appearance was almost like a Fae's. The Major slipped her hand onto the women's. The moment she did, the most shocking green irises she had ever seen locked with hers.


	5. Sweet Dreams

Disclaimer: Please see first chapter.  
-------  
  
Feeling her feet lock into place, the bewildered Major couldn't rip her eyes away from the emerald gaze. She merely titled her head at it, her own grey-sapphire irises questioning. She received only a small blink in return.  
  
The figure stood gracefully. She was covered in an ivory cloth that sparkled with what looked like diamond dust. Flakes of copper glazed her cheeks creating freckles. The women's hair was pulled back, curly strands looking quite like a fire, with a ring of dewdrops tangled within them and drooping across the figure's forehead.  
  
"Who... are you? Sam found her voice, never blinking away from the heavenly figure.  
  
The women bowed her head and took a few steps towards Sam. Reaching her, she placed her chilly fingertips on the Major's forehead. "I am Mayet. Sam felt all concerns and questions fade away. She saw this women's story, of her struggle against Upuaut, and her fight for her people.  
  
When Mayet backed away, Sam noticed another change. She was no longer in her uniform. Instead, she was dressed in a similar less decorative garb as the goddess. She was about to inquire as to why, but Mayet was a step ahead of her.  
  
"You deserve many a gift for lifting me from my slumber, child. You, a mortal not of my own blood, have succeeded where none of my blood-children could. Blood children? Did she mean Ayianna, the other Ancients? "Please... sit beside me, so that I may proudly call you daughter.  
  
Her experience had led her to never upset one whom considered them powerful, and in this case a goddess. Even if she disagreed, her feet seemed to float near Mayet's throne. She sat down on the steps at the now seated women's feet. Cranking her neck up, she could see her looking down adorably.  
  
"Please... Sam broke the silence they had fallen into. "... I need you help. I don't know what's real. And my friend, he's in trouble. He's frozen in one of your devices. We can't get him out.  
  
"It is not my device. It is my children's. And this, my darling, is real. This is the paradise I created for those who met my challenge. At her words, the white room melted into an open marble temple. Behind them a long beach could be seen. IN front of them a lush jungle was sprawled out.  
  
Sam gasped as she looked around. This was marvelous! She knew, though, that she could not stay here. She had no wish too. Not now at least.  
  
"What you experienced, the reality you fought through was my creation. I s designed my world so that those would have to face three of their worst fears. If one could survive the three terrors, they are permitted here with my good grace. "  
  
"Yours were on the emotional level. Third was loosing your job, Second your father disappearing with nothing but a good-bye, and first was loosing Jonathan for good. And though you broke your personal boundaries, I find nothing amiss in your reactions.  
  
Sam opened her mouth to ask how she knew it, but Mayet's laugh met her. "I can see into your mind, soul, heart, my dear. It is one of my gifts.  
  
"I understand... Sam frowned. "That still doesn't answer part of my question.  
  
"I am afraid that I myself can not help him. She said, watching Sam's smile diminish. "No, Samantha, I can not help him. But I can help you see.  
  
"See?  
  
"Freeing your friend is much similar then you think. Anyone is capable of doing it. Or, I should say, any of my children. Mayet stood once more and walked over to a shimmering glass. "Come here, Samantha. Tell me, what do you see?  
  
Doing as she was commanded, Sam glided over to the looking glass. A slight gasp left her mouth. Normally she didn't take much in her appearance. But in this moment, she even thought herself beautiful. She appeared sad, but still beautiful.  
  
"I see my reflection. I see a woman who's had a few times that have almost worn me down. I see a women who's nearing the end of her strings. She replied to the question, her initial happiness fading a bit.  
  
Mayet chuckled once more. "Too much faith do they put in your friend Jonathan. I tell you what I see. I see a great hope for your people. You look upon my children as if they were great things to be worshiped. I see them no better then you.  
  
"But their knowledge, they're technology! Yes, they had a plague that destroyed them, but they were prepared. They left us the means to live when they could not! The scientist argued.  
  
"Yes, but is that not what you do? You leave knowledge and advancements to your children. The only difference between my children and your people is control. We have learned to use the energy of the mind and body to it's fullest. I can teach you how. "  
  
With little hesitation, Sam sat in the middle of the temple. Light from the above sun shimmered down on her through a circular opening. Her shoulders drooped down, and her feet were crossed. She dragged slow breaths in and out as Mayet had instructed her.  
  
Slipping into a deep state of mediation, she felt quite like Teal'c may during Kel'no'reem. She could hear Mayet whispering to her, giving her instructions. Her mind followed them, not her ears or senses.  
  
In a few moments she was back in the chamber, facing the block of ice that Jack was being held in. This time, though, she saw hundreds of little strings knotted together. Biting her lip she slowly reached foreword and tried to untie them. The going was slow, but the time past swiftly.  
  
She had one more knot to undo. Her fingers were split and cracked from her tedious work. Small blood stains marked several spots of the other strings. This one seemed impossible to figure out. But Mayet's voice rang in her head.  
  
"You focus too much on your physical ability. Reach to him with your mind. Drop your fingers, do not use physical means. She urged.  
  
Taking another breath, Sam glanced from Colonel O'Neill's face to the string. Her heart swelled with determination. She had come too damn far to let one small string stop her now. She concentrated on the thread, willing it apart. Sure enough, it slid like pieces of silk slipping by.  
  
The barrier was removed between the two. Jack fell foreword slowly towards her. She barely caught him, gently lowering him to the ground gently. His face was still pale, his eyes staring into an unknown target.  
  
"Jack? Please. Wake up. Come back to me. Please. Don't let this all have been for nothing... She pleaded, grinning as he gasped in a breath. But just as she had come into Mayet's presence, she disappeared in one last flash.   
  
------  
  
After returning from Harlise, Daniel had persuaded Dr. Wier to let them return to Antarctica. He wished to look for signs of Mayet in the Chamber. If he could confirm that, then he could possibly find a way to bring Sam back. That was his first priority.  
  
With more tools, he searched the walls around them. Hints in the Harlisian temple gave him a little more guidenance. He had unlocked several more wall panels that revealed even more of the story. But nothing lead him any closer.  
  
Daniel rested his head against one of the panels. It had been two days with still no sign of the blonde Major. His eyes drooped. He couldn't remember when the last full night of sleep he had had was. He started to slumber when something caught his eye.  
  
The ice that held the Colonel in place was ... shimmering? His jaw dropped slowly as he walked over for a closer look. Inside the ice silver and gold sparks radiated for a few moments at a time. It resembled the strings of a grand piano being struck by a delicate manner.  
  
With one last plunk of light, the shield of ice retreated. Jack inhaled a sharp breath. The Colonel doubled over coughing and fell forward. Teal'c caught him by the shoulders, waiting for him to catch his breath. When he finally did his eyes searched the room, apparently not finding what he was looking for.  
  
"She's not here, Jack. Daniel answered him. Jack's brows furled at him in question. "She... Ah... went looking for you.  
  
"But she was just here... Jack crocked out in English. After what he had been stumbling before his hibernation, this in itself was a miracle.  
  
A blinding blue flash filled the chamber. Lying in a heap of cloth, a very tired Sam curled up in a ball. She lifted her head to see those present gathering over the one she had released. With a grin she collapsed.   
-------  
  
Dr. Wier shuffled the papers on her desk. These past few weeks had been the most confusing in her life. She had gained a whole new respect for the work General Hammond had done. So many great people went through hell and came back to do it all over again. She had the pleasure of knowing and trying to lead these people for the time that she was being placed here. It's a shame she was moving on so soon, she'd miss this place.  
  
Elizabeth had planned on staying until a permanent replacement had been found for Hammond. And, that replacement had been found. At the discovery that Colonel O'Neill would return to full health physically and mentally, he had been offered a promotion and a new job. Who ever thought that one who detested paperwork so much would jump at the offer?  
  
A noise at the door caused her to lift her head. Teal'c, Daniel, and Sam stood there waiting to come in. They had yet to hear the news of the soon-to-be ex-CO of SG-1, Dr. Wier wanting to tell them herself.  
  
"Dr. Wier, if this is about our next mission, I really would like to find Mayet again. There's so much-" Sam enthusiastic response was cut off.  
  
"Please, we can discuss that later. Right now, I have some important news I would like you to hear from me." She sat them down, relaying to them what she had wished. "In addition, it has been decided that SG-1 will remain a three member team. And that Major Carter is to be promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel as the new commanding officer. Weither you will remain O'Neill's second in command as he was to Hammond, is up to the both of you."   
  
Congratulations were passed, and the team was dismissed. As excited as she was, Sam still had something tugging at the back of her mind. There was still something she had to find out.   
-------  
Five days had passed since SG-1 had freed O'Neill from his "hibernation." The new medical commander had insisted on monitoring Jack for at least two weeks, with another minimum of two weeks down time. His temporary home, a small cubical in the infirmary, had started to look like a gift shop. All the flowers, cards, candy, and letters that decorated the otherwise bare wall put hallmark stores to shame.  
  
Sam knocked lightly on the doorway before stepping into the infirmary room, fresh from Dr. Wier's office. Her kilowatt smile beamed brightly as she walked towards the bed. A very sleepy looking Jack smiled drowsily back.   
  
"I hear you've been giving the nurses some trouble about them waking you up." She pulled a chair over to sit beside him, but, he scooted over and patted the free space of the bed for her to sit down. "Don't you think you've slept enough?" She asked, reluctantly taking up his offer.   
  
"Well, you know." The Colonel shrugged," I wasn't really sleeping that...oh... MONTH or so." He couldn't help but grin. "By the by, Congrats on the promo! Though, they had me worried, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to order you around anymore."  
  
Sam chuckled, "Ohhh no. Instead you get to order EVERYONE around! So help us. And no getting rid of my blue jell-o just because you like Strawberry!"  
  
"Ouch! You drive a hard bargain! Actually I planned on doubling the amount of jell-o per serving and adding little chocolate cakes for certain female employee's sweet tooth!"  
  
Another laugh left her as reached over the blankets to tuck him in , in an almost motherly fashion. When her hand came to his neck she shuddered. He still hadn't returned to a normal temperature. She couldn't help but recall the nightmares that still clung to her.   
  
"Carter... It's alright." He took her hand away from his neck and placed it on his cheek. "I'm right here. This is me. I'm not going to fade away this time." He sat up, pulling her into a tight hug.  
  
In a sudden realization hit her, causing her to pull back. "Sir, this could be viewed as very wrong..." She cautioned. Like in other situations, Jack didn't seem to care all too much.   
  
"It 'this' could, what ever 'this' is, then I'll blame it on a delusional state. But right now all I want to do is have my best second in command to sit by me so that I know that I'm really here... And so I can pick on her!" He finished, attacking her with tickling.   
  
"Ahhh! Nooooo! I surrender!" She squealed, wriggling from his grasp. Abruptly, she stopped. "Wait. You know that this is real?"  
  
Jack's smirk faded. "Yea... Sam, I saw everything that you did. That is.. except from my point of view." His face shifted in confusion.   
  
"What do you mean everything?" She questioned. Her mind lingered back on the use of her first name.  
  
"Your not the only one who had to go through a test. I kinda had to go through the wringer, too." He shuffled under his coverings.  
  
She paused as her eyes fell to the floor. "What did you see...feel....do?" Confusion laced her words.  
  
"You." He answered after a few moments. His reply prompted another baffled look from her. "I saw what you went through."  
  
" Ya' know... It is quite odd to go to your own funeral. But, you really should wear that dress more often. It really-" Her look turned to a glare. "Oooor not?" he rubbed the back of his head.  
  
Yet another uncomfortable silence fell on them. Like usual Carter seemed to be contemplating something. O'Neill waited patiently for a reply, actually wanting to her her say something. At this moment he'd be thankful for even her scientific blabbering.   
  
"I don't understand it. Mayet told me that I had to live out my three greatest fears... Why would you only have to watch mine?"  
  
"I guess that I went through mine. Not being able to comfort my friends, Not being able to try to fix a bad situation, and...Well, seeing you hurt." He reasoned.   
  
Sam's eyes did not widen, but rather closed. She had been aware that he cared for her 'a lot more then he was supposed to' as to quote his own words. Heaven knows how her heart had pounded when he said that four years ago.  
  
She had thought that by now those feelings would have faded and let her rest in peace. By their own fears, it was evident that didn't happen. I wouldn't. What confused her now was that they had been given a chance, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to take it even now. There was still a part of her that wasn't sure.  
  
"Ya' know... Sam..." He took her hand, squeezing it gently. "I can chose another for a second. We wouldn't have to lie anymore." He said in a low voice. Had her face really shown that much?  
  
"Jack...As much as I want that..." She started.  
  
"Then it's done! There are a ton of-" He stopped by her hand on his lips. "Carter?" He questioned, falling back into habit.  
  
"No, no! Jack, I don't mean that. What I mean is that we still have so much to do. I think we can do it the easiest working the way we did. When that's done... I can always ask for reassignment."  
  
Jack smiled softly, nodding slowly. "Alright, Carter. Just a little longer. I know you can't wait to have an old man like me bugging you even more."  
  
"Well, I always thought men were like fine wine." She said thoughtfully.  
  
"Ah....huh? I mean I know I start out bitter, but..." He smirked, provoking laughter.  
  
Sam glanced around, snickering to see the camera in the corner pointed the other way. Someone was up there. Safe from dangerous eyes, she bent down to kiss him quickly and back up towards the door.   
  
"No. Not quite, though on the same track. They're much better aged." She said before vanishing from his sight.   
  
Still many mysterious left as to what would be the result of her little adventure. Now that Mayet was awake, would Upuaut open his eyes? Now that she had been introduced to the higher world of the ancients, would she be satisfied not searching for more? For now, those would have to wait.  
  
She had found him. Her nightmares were gone. And there were many ends that needed to be tied. Somehow, though, she would follow this through to end. But first, sleep.   
------  
  
A/N: Oh...my.... I finished something! YES! o.o I hope you all enjoyed. A sequel might be written if I can muster up the strength/ you guys wish. What do ya' think?  



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